Toker, Çiğdem

2 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Cumhuriyet - Turkey | 04/02/2015

AKP security package ends democracy

The Turkish parliament will discuss today a security package put forward by the governing AKP party which would strengthen the powers of the police in searches and arrests. This is the end of democracy, the Kemalist daily Cumhuriyet warns: "This package represents an encroachment into the right to life, and as such will lead to more deaths in police interventions. .. It effectively turns the police into prosecutors, not only where the use of weapons is concerned but also in searches, interrogations and arrests of witnesses under certain circumstances. The right of assembly and demonstration - one of the basic human rights - will be criminalised and made into a terrorist act. Almost twenty years ago President Erdoğan said: 'For us democracy is a tramway. When we get to our destination we get out.' ... It seems this draft law is the last kilometre on the way to his destination."

Headscarf freedom at schools a farce

As of the start of the next school year Turkish schoolgirls will be allowed to wear a headscarf from the fifth grade, the government announced on Monday. It hailed the new regulation as an important step towards religious freedom. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the girls' freedom, the Kemalist daily Cumhuriyet rails: "'Freedom' is a positive concept. It means that people in a selected area can live freer than before they had this freedom. 'Headscarf freedom in secondary school education' doesn't give pupils freedom, but gives the fathers of ten-year-old girls the right to cover their daughters' heads. ... Even if the ministers failed to mention that according to Islam girls who have started menstruating become sexually attractive subjects, we have all understood what hides behind this 'headscarf freedom'. ... If you want to scrap mixed classes next, don't insult our intelligence by calling it 'freedom'."